Since the announcement of the movie adaptation of Alain Damasio's novel La Horde du Contrevent, a part of the small French Fantasy world is in turmoil, evidenced by the mixed reactions on Twitter (mostly in French... :)).

This book is for many people (including me) a real masterpiece, a true source of pride and admiration for the French fans of Fantasy, so, this kind of announcement gives necessarily contradictory feelings, like when I heard for the Lord of the Rings... Except that, if we could easily imagine how the LotR could be adapted into a film, it's a different story for the Horde. This book is not simply a story that is told, it's, basically, a whole concept. And, I clearly realize that many charms of the books won't be translated in the movie... And that's scary because it hints at the frustration on the final result...

Remember, I already told you do a little bit about the book, I really loved this book and I think I'm scared that the achievement won't be up to par.
Please note, this has absolutely nothing to do with the parents of the project, I'm a fan of Jan Kounen since Vibroboy (I am..... VIBROOOBOY!!!!!!!) and Doberman, and I have total confidence in Mark Caro for the graphics (even if I have some difficulties with Jeunet's films, I admit that, graphically, it's always damn good).

But ... The Horde... This is not a novel that fits, it's a concept that need to be translated, and, really, it seems so Homeric as a project, so huge as the claim that I fail to see how I cannot be disappointed... Especially as it would seem that a game is also in production (French link) and... humpf.... Without going so far as to say that it smells pump money... Do you know any good recent adaptations movies / video games that have worked ?.... Suppose, as it's the same studio that takes care of everything, we could have something right level of Assassin's Creed, but hey, Forge Animation is not Ubisoft though...
However, the original version of the movie will be in English, it won't change anything but at least if the film has a little success, you can expect a translation of the book in the language of Shakespeare.... And that'd be fucking great!!! (if the translation is good... Hopefully, they won't do it so quickly and will take their time to do something good)

In short, everybody has understood, I am more than skeptical about what's going on.... But, hey, even if I have doubts, fears and so on which makes me a little bit rough about the project, basically, I expect only one thing : to be surprised by the project, I really hope Jan will make a wonderful animated film that I remain on the ass and I dry my tears at the end.... And there, I promise, I would be the greatest sponsor of the movie! :)

I spoke about it in a previous note, today, I'll speak a little bit more about the Masamune Shirow's work.

So, where I should start (without make a note which look like a copy paste from Wikipedia...). First of all, Ghost In The Shell is a SciFi Japanese work, 5 mangas, 3 movies, 2 series of 26 episodes and one mini series, no need to say, it's a big piece!

I'll will briefly sum up the context, the story takes place in the futur (around the year 2030), the whole world is connected to the biggest electronic network ever seen, cyborgs are commons and even humans have got various electronics implants (body, brain, nothing is impossible!) which help them to perform incredible feat (about this, I've always asked myself of how the Olympics games look like in such a society... They've probably got 2 kilometers long sandpit for the long-jump sport and the Coubertin spirit has probably been updated to a weird 2.0 version.... Every time I'm trying to imagine it, it looks weird, am I the only one who ask him such a question?)

Anyway, in this cyberspace world where the oxygen is in competition with electricity, we follow the adventures of the 9th Section, an anti-terrorism elite unit, as proficient in the real world as in the cyberworld. This unit is composed by atypical characters, impressive cyborg, complicated humans and the best of the technology.

The first manga has been out in 1989 and tackled a philosophical topic about the evolution of our modern societies. Soul is the last wall which can help to distinguish humans from the robots, but, in a society where humans themselves are robotized, eventually, what is the soul? Robots couldn't pretend to have one too? (Asimov has already written about this subject from another point of view, Hamilton, and also K. Dick... This is a very interesting subject and, for myself, Masamune Shirow can claim to be as good as those writers when he speaks about it). By the way, this is the main point where the title come from, Ghost in the Shell, the Soul in the Coil. And, from that point, the imagination of Shirow start to rise, far, far away...

I won't sum up the whole story (on the one hand, I don't want to frustrate you from discovering this work, and, on the other hand.... It'll be really really too long!), however, I'll spare with you my critic, even if it will be a very partial one because I think GITS is just amazing, terrific, grandiose (you can continue this sentence with a synonym dictionary if you want).

First of all, I've never ever been bored when I was watching to this anime, I've spent entire nights watching to GITS again and again, this anime is so gut-wrenching. The whole work is various, coherent, character are charming (even the most brutal one), the production is great, the animation is impressive and you can watch every episode with the same pleasure as before. Scenarios are excellent, there are a mix between smart philosophical reflexions, well managed intrigues, technically realistic fights, feelings, emotions, suspense.... Anyway, it's a jewel, a pure and beautiful jewel that you have to watch!!

About a little anecdotal story (even if I'm not really proud of it) it's the only thing, among all the stuff I've seen, read, listened... everything. Which has brought tears to my eyes. And it wasn't during a really obvious seen especially made to flood a cinema, it was really touching scenes, with full of hope and sadness, I assure you, it's has really blown my mind up.

So, now, you understand why I had to speak about GITS here, even if it hasn't "change my life", for me, it's a must which have to be seen! It keeps its incredible power even if you watch it a ton of times!

Now you know why it's one of my major inspiration, even if it could sound a bit strange :)